This invention relates to a parachute system and to an aircraft ejection seat having a parachute system associated therewith.
In operation of a typical aircraft ejection seat, the ejection seat, with an airman thereon, is ejected from an aircraft by means of a telescopic ejection gun, such ejection being assisted by a rocket motor. After ejection, a drogue parachute is deployed by means of a bullet or projectile fired from a drogue gun carried by the ejection seat, the drogue gun bullet being connected by a line to the crown of the drogue parachute in question. The drogue parachute referred to may simply be a "pilot" drogue parachute connected to a "main" drogue parachute which in turn is connected by a further line to the airman's "personal" parachute. The line interconnecting the "main" drogue parachute and the "personal" parachute in such an arrangement is normally secured to a shackle located on the seat frame, this shackle remaining locked until released by a device incorporating, for example, a timer, a barometric pressure sensing device, etc., the arrangement being such that the main drogue parachute, after deployment, remains attached to the ejection seat until the latter has slowed down to an appropriate air speed and has reached an appropriate altitude for deployment for the airman's "personal" parachute, at which point the main drogue parachute is released from the ejection seat and is allowed to draw out the airman's "personal" parachute, whilst the airman is released from the ejection seat which falls away from him.
It will be appreciated that in the conventional system described, the drogue and bullet remain attached to the drogue parachute, and thus to the airman's "personal" parachute and there is consequently some risk, albeit a small one, that at some point after it has been fired, the drogue gun bullet may strike the airman or the ejection seat, causing injury or damage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a parachute system by means of which the above-noted risk may be avoided.